


The Double-NOT-Date

by orioninthesky



Category: Skam Italia
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 10:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orioninthesky/pseuds/orioninthesky





	The Double-NOT-Date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [my crackheads](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=my+crackheads).



Silvia and Eva were studying for a test. 

Silvia had gone through her notes a million times and felt ready for it; Eva, on the other hand... Eva Brighi was procrastinating on her phone, instead. Probably texting Giovanni—which reminded Silvia of something she’s been trying to avoid thinking about. The fact that they have a double date tonight.  
Well, Eva has a date with Giovanni and Silvia has a blind date with someone at the same time and place, so this could be technically called a double date since Gio was the one who found this “perfect” guy for her. 

 

“Eva, are you sure the guy is not an asshole? I don’t want to spend the whole night speaking to an idiot that thinks he’s going to “get lucky” at the end of the night, I don’t need this kind of moron in my life.”

“Of course not, Sil. Gio knows that you’re not looking for a hook up. That you want to meet a nice guy... He swore he knows the perfect guy for you.”

Eva gives her an encouraging smile.

“And you don’t know the guy?” 

Silvia asks, for the 50th time since the date was arranged.

“No. But I’m sure he will be... a prince, Silvia! A prince for my princess friend, ok? Don’t worry.” 

Eva says, trying to make Silvia relax a little. 

Silvia sighed, nervously.

“It’s easy for you to say.”

Fifteen seconds passed.

“Oh! One more thing!”

“What now?” Eva asks, still looking at her phone.

“Does he like cats? I can’t go out with someone that doesn’t like cats, Eva!”

Now Eva stopped what she was doing and looked at her, she saw Silvia was serious about the question.

“I’m gonna ask Gio.”

 

***

They were playing Fifa instead of studying. Elia realizes he won't magically learn History while playing video games but Giovanni already knew the subject and it was so embarrassing to study with someone that always has everything figured out. 

Giovanni’s phone buzzed.

Game: PAUSED.

“Shit, I’m dead. Eva is going to kill me!” He said, reading the text he had just received.

“What’s up, bro? What did you do now?” 

Elia asks, half laughing at Giovanni’s panicked face.

“I told her I had found a guy that would be a perfect match for her friend and then we set this double date dinner. Guess what? Mister perfect guy just cancelled. He says he can’t miss the opportunity of getting back together with his ex at this party tonight, he’s going to that instead of a silly blind date. He used these words, man. I thought he was looking forward to it. I thought this asshole was over his ex! Fuck.”

“Who is he?”

“My neighbor Bruno, I don’t think you’ve met him.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so, either... Hey, how come you didn’t think of me or Luca as this girls’ perfect match?”

Giovanni laughs.

“Easy. She’s looking for a serious relationship.”

Elia made a face like he didn’t get why this was an impediment.

“Come on! You guys don’t want anything serious, I promised Eva I’d bring a decent guy.”

“Bruno seems very decent, alright.”

He shrugged, unpausing the game.

“Don’t be mad, bro. You guys just aren’t there yet, that doesn’t mean you won’t be, someday.”

In a distant, very distant future--Giovanni thought to himself and almost smiled.

“So what are you gonna do now?”

“Shit. I...” 

Game: paused again.

Giovanni looked around the room as if he could find a solution there. His eyes inevitably laid on his friend sitting there by his side. He knew this wasn’t a very good idea. The circumstances left him with no time to come up with a better one, though. So he took a deep breath and asked.

“Would you be interested?”

“Ohhh, so now you need me? Now I’m good enough for your double date?”

“Fuck, Elia. You know I know you’re a good guy, the thing is... you’re not exactly looking for a girlfriend, are you? Do you want to be in a serious relationship?”

Elia pretends to shiver at his question. 

“Exactly my point. So... could you just... pretend to be a gentleman tonight?”

“Hey! I’m a gentleman!”

“Sure you are, buddy.” 

Giovanni pats Elia on his shoulder.

“You’ll have to do better than this to convince me, man. Bummer. Your lady will be pretty pissed, huh?” 

Elia says, unpausing the game. 

Giovanni pauses it once again.

“Elia, my friend--my dear fucking friend--can you please be the gentleman you are deep down, tonight? Can you please be a gentleman to Silvia for 2 hours tonight?”

Elia’s jaw dropped.

“Silvia??? THAT Silvia? No, bro... I can’t, I... what the hell are we gonna talk about? Clothes? Makeup? Riverdale? I mean, will she let me talk? I’ve noticed she talks A LOT. She’s very pretty, I admit that, but she’ll probably spend the whole night trying to convince me to work on that radio thing of hers, what’s the fun in that, man?” 

“You know I’d back you up if you needed me, but fine, if you have a better place to go and eat delicious food for free... okay.”

Giovanni shrugged, trying not to show how desperate he was for this to work and for Elia to say yes.

“Why don’t you invite Luca? You know he has a crush on Silvia.”

“He has a crush on every girl breathing. He wouldn’t know how to behave, he’d be burping OR worse in no time, you know that. Besides, he’s too childish for Silvia.”

“And I’m not?”

“Not that much. Don’t tell him I said that.”

“Ok, I’ll go.”

“You’re serious?”

 

Elia nodded. 

“I owe you one big time, my friend.” 

Giovanni wanted to hug him, which made Elia laugh.

“You’re such a sucker for Brighi. You really couldn’t handle disappointing her, huh?”

“She’ll be disappointed either way.”

He shrugs.

They finally unpause the game to finish the match before going to the so-called double date. 

Elia wins.

***

Giovanni lent one of his best shirts to Elia. He wanted him to make a good impression on the girls. 

First they’re going to pick Eva up and then Silvia.

On their way to Eva’s, Elia realizes he actually never had a proper date with anyone before. This makes him feel nervous. He went out with girls before, obviously. But not like this, not a dinner date, not a date that required wearing a fancy shirt. It was weird that the first proper date of his life had nothing to do with him. He was just going because there wasn’t another option available. 

When Eva opens the door she immediately sees Elia behind Giovanni. She wants to kill her boyfriend right there. She’s so mad at him, Giovanni told Eva she didn’t know his friend and she knows Elia very well. She also knows he’s not looking for a serious relationship, in fact, he’s probably allergic to the thought of it.

She grabs Giovanni by his collar and pulls him inside while closing the door behind him.

“What’s this? You promised me you would bring a decent friend, you actually said the guy was a perfect match for Silvia, and now... Elia of all people, Giovanni Garau? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Giovanni sighed and tried to hold her hand. Eva took a step back and crossed her arms.

“Elia is decent, Koala. He... he wasn’t the guy I told you about, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was wrong about the other guy, okay? I thought he was over his previous relationship and... he wasn’t. An opportunity came up and he wants to get back to his ex-girlfriend. I’m sorry.”

“Fuck, Gio. At what time did this happen? I spoke to you 3 hours ago. Why didn’t you tell me? Silvia is gonna be crushed, I can’t believe this is happening.”

“He texted me a couple of hours ago, I didn’t want to disappoint you or Silvia. Listen, we can still go. Elia is going to behave like a prince, I swear.”

Eva laughs, bitterly.

“Yeah, right.”

“You can blame it on me, she doesn’t need to know the other guy stood her up. Come on, let’s have a nice night. I bet Elia will at least make Silvia laugh. What do you say?”

Gio got closer, caressing her cheek softly. When he spoke to her in that voice, almost whispering... boy, he could get her to do anything for him. 

“Fine, we’ll go. If Elia makes Silvia even a tiny bit upset though, we’re going to have problems.”

“You’re going to beat him up?”

Giovanni asked, laughing and embracing her.

“No, I’m gonna beat YOU up.”

“How about a kiss?”

“I don’t know if you deserve it.”

“Don’t be so mean to me. I spent months without being able to kiss you, isn’t that punishment enough?”

“Hm, maybe you’re right.”

Then, Eva gave him a long and passionate kiss.

A couple of minutes later, Giovanni opened the door and Eva finally greeted Elia properly. (If you call nodding her head in his direction a proper greeting, that is.) Elia actually thought of going home when Eva closed the door on his face. He decided to wait just because he was pretty hungry at this point. 

The three of them were on an Uber going to pick up Silvia. 

Eva texted Silvia about Elia. Silvia wanted to scream when she read Eva’s text. She knew Giovanni didn’t have any friends aside from those 3 boys he always hangs out with, she knew it! Why didn’t she listen to her intuition? 

Silvia tried to convince Eva to lie to them, “say I’m having cramps, say I’ve been eaten by my cat, spare me from having a shitty night, please!” Eva tried to calm her down saying Elia was actually pretty funny.  
It was a lie, or at least his sense of humor didn’t exactly made Eva burst into laughter; what she didn’t want was for Silvia to spend another Friday at home thinking she was missing a lot for not having a boyfriend. Maybe this would be good. Silvia would realize sometimes you’re better off alone than with a guy like this one. 

Silvia opened the car door and said hi to them. She sat by Elia’s side and gave him a quick look. At least he smelled good. Nice taste in perfume fragrances wasn’t something she expected from a guy like Elia. She wasn’t going to get her hopes up that easily, though. 

Eva and Giovanni were making out while Silvia and Elia had exchanged only a few more awkward glances. 

At the restaurant, Eva and Giovanni asked for the same pizza flavor and pasta while Elia and Silvia asked for pepperoni and veggi, respectively. 

Silvia is not trying to look a certain way for a guy or for anyone anymore. She’s been working on her body image issues with a therapist and even though sometimes she still faces the ghost of having a distorted image of her body, she’s been doing better at accepting it just the way it is.

As soon as Silvia heard Elia’s order she thought to herself: there, confirmed. There’s no way this could work. She hated pepperoni pizza with all her might. 

“At least he doesn’t eat like Homer Simpson” she ponders; that’s a relief since he’s sitting right in front of her and she can’t help but to look at him sometimes while eating her own pizza. 

Eva and Giovanni are doing all the talking. Both of them are trying to make it less awkward by telling funny stories about people they all know from school.

When they get busy recreating that classic spaghetti scene from the lady and the tramp using cheese from their pizza as the spaghetti, Silvia feels like trying to start a conversation with Elia. It couldn’t be worse than seeing your friend kissing her boyfriend’s greasy mouth, could it? 

“So... what’s your... zodiac sign?”

She asked the first thing that came to her mind. She knows most guys hate this kind of question so it would also serve to see how this one would react to a question he didn’t like.  
Plus, she didn't have to make him feel a certain way, she wasn't trying to impress him. So there it is, that's my question, dude. Deal with it.

Huh. Elia knew this would be painful. 

“I don’t know.”

He shrugs.

“How can you not know? When is your birthday?”

She asks, baffled that he doesn't even know his zodiac sign.

“June 24th?”

He answers; it actually sounded like a question. What is wrong with him? Doesn’t he know the day he was born, either?  
It annoyed her and because of that it took Silvia 30 seconds for her to calculate which sign was his.

“Oh.”

“What? “Oh”, what? Is it bad?”

“Cancer. You’re a cancerian.”

“That’s distasteful as hell.”

“Well, I’m not the one to blame. It’s the constellation’s name... the sign was named after it, so...”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“So... what does it mean? Is it a good sign or what?”

“Hm, you could say that.”

Silvia wasn’t expecting their signs to match, but that didn’t mean anything, she’s not that silly. His astrological map must be full of planets in signs completely incompatible with hers. Taurus & Cancer being a match is ironic, she could have laughed if she didn’t have to stop and explain constellation’s names to him.

Elia looked like he wanted more information. Ok, he passed this test that wasn’t really a test. There was just one problem now. Silvia didn’t want to tell him his sign’s personality traits. She took a bite on her pizza and chewed very slowly. 

He still looked interested after that. She sighed.

“People born under this sign are often very sensitive—romantic, even. They’re very attached to their friends and family, very protective. That’s... what I’ve read about it, at least. It may vary, though.”

He’s giving her a half smile. It kinda makes sense, even though he thinks astrology is plain bullshit.

“Also, they like to play the victim once in a while because they’re very needy.”

Silvia said, taking another bite from her pizza. 

That’s when they both realize Eva and Giovanni have stopped kissing and are paying attention to their conversation.

Awkward.

Double dates when one couple is already dating and the other two are complete strangers don’t work, Silvia knows that now. She should have known this before. Not that it’s going badly, it’s just... too much pressure. 

A song starts to play and Eva looks at Gio like they’re sharing a secret, which they probably are. 

Silvia feels a pang in her heart, she wants so bad to have that. She also wants to roll her eyes forever. Why are they always so damn cute? 

Silvia has no idea if that’s in her fate. Sometimes she thinks she’s going to die alone.  
No, that’s not actually true. She thinks she will die in the company of 27 cats. 

Elia watches Silvia messing with the pizza that’s still on her plate. Old habits die hard, even when you’re doing better. 

He wants to say something but doesn’t know what. Nothing he has to say would impress her. And why would he want to impress her, by the way? He’s only here as a favor to one of his best friends, that’s all. He has to be nice, he definitely doesn’t need to try to be funny nor charming like he does when he’s into a girl. He can be himself--how freeing!

“You’re gonna eat that or what?”

“Why? You realized that pepperoni pizza is disgusting and want a slice of mine?”

He laughed.

“Ew, no. I just thought you forgot you have to grab it, chew and swallow.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny.” 

She says in a humorless tone. 

He would never say that to a girl he was trying to hook up with. Also, that wasn’t very gentlemanly on his part, right? Shit. The next thing he says will be nicer--he promises to himself. 

“So, do you two buy all your clothes together or is this Gio’s shirt?”

Silvia says, trying to be as indelicate as he had been to her.

Giovanni comes up with an excuse and says all his friends don’t have much patience when it comes to buying clothes so he helps them with it. 

Their fashion choices are questionable, to say the least.  
Silvia’s thoughts can be read in her face. 

They’re quiet again while Eva and Gio keep laughing and telling stories, it’s like they’ve been together for 50 years! How can they have so many things to tell? Let alone that Koala thing; it’s unbearable, sometimes. 

Silvia feels like this is the universe giving her a sign to stop. Stop trusting her friends when it comes to love advice.  
Searching for love is the stupidest thing. It founds you or it doesn’t, that’s it.  
Love wasn’t trying to find her, she should accept this and move on.  
Life can be great for single people, too. Why keep obsessing over it?

When they order dessert, Eva and Giovanni’s are completely different and for Silvia and Elia’s surprise, theirs are the same. 

Chocolate Amaretto Pudding

They exchange a funny look and end up smiling.

He makes a yum sound while he’s tasting the first bite and so does Silvia. The four of them laugh. 

When they ask for the check, Elia and Giovanni pay the bill. 

Elia uses the money Giovanni gave to him earlier. 

Eva looks pleased with how the night turned out.

They take another Uber and since Eva is sleeping at Gio’s tonight, Silvia will spend the next 15 minutes alone with Elia on that backseat. 

Damn. Will this be those 15 minutes that feel like an hour? She hopes not.

The silence, the distance, everything about this sucks. It’s embarrassing that she really thought Gio’s friend would be the one, that this was a good idea. Foolish girl. 

“So, what’s your zodiac sign?” 

Elia asks, not able to bear the silence either, but also because he promised to be a gentleman tonight and he hadn’t even asked her question back. This is the only thing he can do to try to make up for his rude question early.

“Taurus. May 3rd.”

“Hm. Meaning?”

“Adaptable but stubborn, faithful, trustful, affective.” 

She shrugs.

“How can this be?”

“Huh?”

“”Adaptable but stubborn?””

“We adapt to people, like, I may have a tendency to want to please people so they will like me, being adaptable “helps” with that, the awful part is that you can lose yourself when you become what people around you are instead of just being yourself. It’s an ongoing exercise, really, finding myself and being myself. At the same time I can be stubborn when I want something, even when it’s obvious that thing isn’t for me.”

“Wow. You seem to really dig this thing. Want to be an astrologer?”

She laughs.

“No, no. Maybe a psychologist. Or nutritionist, I don’t know yet. How about you?”

“Don’t know, either. If you ask my parents they’d say I’ll be homeless and an alcoholic in 10 years.”

“Why would they say that?”

“Just kidding.”

He wasn’t. Elia just realized it was too much information to share on a first date that wasn’t really a date.

“You still have time to figure it out. We’re all a bit lost, I’m sure you’re gonna find your way, something that makes your heart race, that you’re passionate about, then you’re going to be very good at doing this particular something, trust me.”

She smiles and for a second he thinks she will touch his hand. She moved her hand towards his--he saw it--he wasn’t crazy!

What the hell was that, Silvia? She almost touched his hand!!! Fortunately she came to her senses on the last second. 

What Silvia said and this hand gesture... it made Elia feel something different. 

Like someone actually cared about his life.  
He wasn’t used to talk about his home situation to his friends.  
He didn’t talk about it at all, in fact.  
So that’s how you feel when someone cares or at least acknowledges you’re not a complete waste of space? 

It feels so damn good.

“I‘m good at baking Chocolate Amaretto Puddings."

“What do you mean?” she asks, surprised.

“Maybe I’ll bake to you one of these days so you’ll see what I mean... if you want to?”

Silvia was taken aback. This was really nice. She doubted he could bake Chocolate Amaretto Puddings the right way, but the offer was literally very sweet. 

“Sure I’d like to!”

Elia had no idea what had just happened. The words escaped his mouth before his brain could process them. Her niceness about him made him do this. So stupid. Did he just invite her to another date? A date where he will BAKE HER CHOCOLATE AMARETTO PUDDINGS? What the fuck?  
He really loved baking them, that wasn’t the problem, the problem was: this was a fake date. It’s supposed to end here. How long can 15 minutes be? Jesus!

“I can give you my phone number, so when you have time to bake them... you can call me.”

“Ok.” 

He automatically took his phone out of his pocket and gave it to her. She saved her number under: Silvia 🍮 (a pudding emoji).

“So... This is where I leave you.” 

She felt so stupid saying that. 

“Ok.”

He decided he wouldn’t say anything longer than “ok” for the rest of the night after his baking invite disaster.

“Goodnight.”

“You too.”

Or “you too”. That’s how he should talk from now on. Small sentences. Better, next time he should just nod.

Elia could barely move. This double-not-date had been a huge mistake.

 

***

 

“How are you, man? I heard you behaved like a gentleman in front of our Sil.” Martino let it escape as soon as he saw Elia at school on Monday. 

Now Luchino was looking at them all confused.  
Giovanni explained it was an emergency and Elia was at his house so that’s why he asked him. 

They felt bad for Luca because once he gets a crush on someone he acts/thinks as if his crushes were actually his girlfriends. It was almost like finding out they were cheating on him.

“So, how was it? Good date?”

He said, looking miserable. For one second there Elia thought he was about to cry. 

“Oh, completely shitty.”

Silvia was passing by in time to listen both the question and his answer. 

She could dig a hole and hide underground forever. 

Elia saw her when it was too late. He hoped she didn’t feel rejected or bad.

Fucking dumbass, of course she would feel bad. 

Shit.

Why did it matter? 

Nothing had happened. Absolutely nothing.

It was just a double-NOT-date!


End file.
